


oprict^iWiiMa 



&&^£3 



ft. 






gi NOTICES OP g£ 

pfWGEKGEURU VANPOLANEN%eL § 



va 



'r^-r^rr 



.'1< ' I' . 1 



mm 



iflfci 



MUtt 



>s&r £- 



x 



J 



^LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

§ ■ 

I <m«/L. CTZ-2S 

t J?2Uf U^!^ 




NOTICES 



OF THE 



LIFE AND CHARACTER 



OF 



ROGER GERARD VAN POLANEN 



FROM THE CHRISTIAN REGISTER 
OF OCTOBER 12, 1833. 



# ; 




PRINTED DECEMBER, 

1847. 



(HV 



f 






Although fourteen years have passed away 
since the death of Mr. Van Polanen, the inter- 
est which attaches to his memoryj on the part 
of all who intimately knew him, seems scarce- 
ly to have diminished. It is in this belief that 
the few notices which follow have been re- 
printed, — not published, — from the papers in 
which they originally appeared ; and in order 
also, that in this more convenient and perma- 
nent form, they might be offered to those who 
cherish his memory with affection, and would 
perhaps be gratified to possess some memorial, 
however imperfect, of so good a man and so 
true a friend. 



NOTICES. 



FROM THE CHRISTIAN REGISTER. 



Messrs. Editors : — May I ask you 
to insert the notices which follow of a 
late distinguished man and good Chris- 
tian. Many of your readers, in different 
parts of the country, have enjoyed his 
friendship or acquaintance, and to them 
they may not prove uninteresting. They 
are very imperfect sketches of one whom, 
all that knew him, loved and respected, 
and whose life was full of variety and 
incident. Few men have seen more of 
the world than Mr. Van Polanen, and few 
have gathered more wisdom from a wide 
and discriminating observation of men and 



manners. Although his prejudices were 
on the side of a high and exclusive aris- 
tocracy, yet they were borne down and 
effectually softened by Christian principle 
and a heart that loved every thing that 
bore the name and form of man. His 
family was among the oldest, if not the 
oldest, of the nobility of Holland. A 
tomb in the family burial-place, near Rot- 
terdam, bears the date of A. D. 700. 
In himself perished, after a lapse of more 
than eleven centuries, in this remote spot, 
the last of his name ; yet was there noth- 
ing in his manners or conversation that 
betrayed any of that pride of birth which 
the consciousness of so remote an antiq- 
uity is almost always found to generate. 
He was remarkable for the unostentatious 
simplicity of his manners, and for an al- 
most republican spirit of adaptation to 
persons of every character and station. 
He was a monarchist in his principles, 



but not a bigoted one. He saw every 
thing to admire and commend in the the- 
ory of our institutions, and was their sin- 
cere well-wisher ; but he doubted if socie- 
ty, even here, was sufficiently enlightened 
and pure to bear them. It was his be- 
lief that no people ever enjoyed richer 
blessings, and more ample means of hap- 
piness, than the people of these States ; 
but his apprehension was that party spir- 
it, local jealousies, and strife for office 
w r ould break up the existing harmony, 
and eventually overthrow a government 
too weak to withstand the passions and 
intrigues of selfish and aspiring politi- 
cians. Yet so interested did he be- 
come in watching the action of the ma- 
chine, and so beautiful and true did he 
deem it in principle, that it is believed, 
if he had returned to Europe in his old 
age, as he sometimes thought of doing, his 
heart would have remained in America. 



8 



A monarchist here, he would have been 
a republican there. 

He was long an able and faithful ser- 
vant of his country ; and so devoted and 
ardent was his patriotism, that life would 
at any time have been a cheap offering 
for her welfare. It was only after a 
severe struggle against inclination, that 
when, a few years ago, at the age of 
seventy-four, his king again called him to 
the head of his councils in the East, he 
was prevailed upon to decline the ap- 
pointment. It was thought impossible 
that he could sustain the fatigues and 
long confinement of the voyage. In the 
earlier part of his life he resided during 
ten years at Batavia, as head of the judi- 
ciary department, and, virtually, governor of 
the colony. He obtained the distinguish- 
ed approbation of his government for the 
manner in which he performed the duties 
of his office, and for the very important 



changes which he introduced into the ad- 
ministration of the laws in their bearing 
upon the native population. Upon this 
subject he published, on his return to 
Europe, a volume elucidating and defend- 
ing what he conceived to be the true 
principles of colonial government, and pre- 
senting ample details of his own practice 
while intrusted with power. It was once 
more to bring back the colony to the 
condition to which he had exalted it, and 
restore the order and principles of his 
former management, as described in the 
work referred to, that he was lately sum- 
moned, at so advanced a period of his 
life, to resume the office he had in the 
strength of his days filled with so much 
credit to himself and advantage to his 
country. This was a portion of his life 
to which he looked back with unmin- 
gled satisfaction. Although absolute pow- 
er throughout the island was confided to 
2 



10 



his hands, and there was no appeal from 
his decisions, he has declared that he 
could not accuse himself, after the strict- 
est examination, of ever, in a single in- 
stance, having acted under the impulse of 
passion or of private interest, or from any 
other than motives of a public nature. 
With opportunities of accumulating wealth 
to almost any extent, he retired from of- 
fice, though not poor, yet not rich, with 
what most would term a bare compe- 
tency. 

As a scholar, his learning was various ; 
in the departments of civil law, politics, 
and general history, uncommonly exact 
and extensive. He seemed as familiar 
with the events, principles, intrigues, pol- 
icies, of the reigns of the great monarchs 
of many centuries past, as with those of 
the principal cabinets of his own time. 
His recollection of what he had read and 
studied, in this wide branch of letters, 



11 



was not only general, but surprisingly mi- 
nute and accurate. Of our own history, 
and of the history, character, and for- 
tunes of our great political parties and 
their leaders, he had been a careful stu- 
dent, and possessed a knowledge on the 
subject not surpassed or equalled by many 
of our native scholars. In theology, es- 
pecially in the departments of evidences, 
ecclesiastical history, and the history of 
opinions, he was particularly well read, 
and had made valuable communications to 
some of our religious periodicals. 

In social intercourse, he was all that 
could be desired in a friend and compan- 
ion. His temper was habitually cheerful. 
Acting from principle, he was always the 
same. He was frank and sincere. His 
own sensibility was nicely delicate, and 
he treated with scrupulous respect the 
feelings of others. His humanity was an 
admirable and beautiful trait. He loved 



12 



and protected every thing that had life, 
and was shocked and pained by nothing 
more than by cruelty, in any form, to- 
wards the meanest of God's creatures. 
It was his opinion that our national char- 
acter, and the English also, compared very 
disadvantageously, in this respect, not only 
with that of the Dutch, but with that of 
any other people he had known. His 
conversation was in a high degree enter- 
taining and instructive ; for he was full 
of knowledge, and abounded in personal 
anecdotes and recollections of many of 
the most celebrated men of the last fifty 
years, with whom he had become ac- 
quainted, or intimate, in the various cities 
of Europe, or in the capitals of our own 
country. The easy hospitalities of his 
own house none can forget who have 
ever enjoyed them. None can remember 
them without the most delightful and 
pleasurable emotions, nor repress a feel- 



13 



ing of sorrow that he who was their cen- 
tre and life has left for ever the scenes 
which owed so much to his presence. 



THE FOLLOWING IS AN EDITORIAL ARTICLE FROM THE 
NEW YORK EVENING POST. 



The Hon. R. G. Van Polanen, whose 
death was mentioned under our obituary 
head on Saturday, was a gentleman of 
distinguished worth and ability. He was 
a native of Holland, and has represented 
his country with credit and dignity in the 
four quarters of the world ; — in his own 
country, as filling, at different times, vari- 
ous offices of trust and honor ; in Asia, 
as the head of the judiciary of the Dutch 
colony of Batavia ; in Africa, as the in- 
cumbent of a high civil station at the 



15 



Cape of Good Hope ; and in America, as 
Minister Resident of the Batavian repub- 
lic at Washington. This was the last 
public office which he held. He was ar- 
dently attached to the independence and 
ancient republican institutions of his na- 
tive country ; and when Holland was 
merged in the empire of France, he re- 
fused to accept office under the new or- 
der of things, and for the last thirty years 
resided in this country as a private citi- 
zen, in the enjoyment of an easy fortune 
and literary leisure. At a late period of 
his life, he received from the present 
Dutch government the offer of the first 
law office in the colony at Batavia, which 
he declined on account of his ill health 
and advanced age. He was educated at 
one of the Dutch universities, and was 
learned in the classic authors, in the civil 
Jaw, in the literature of his own coun- 
try, of Italy, Germany, France, and Eng- 



16 



land. With English literature, in partic- 
ular, he had attained a minute acquaint- 
ance rare in a foreigner. He was ac- 
quainted in early life with Fox, Voltaire, 
and Gibbon ; concerning the latter of 
whom he used to relate many agreeable 
reminiscences of conversations held at his 
weekly public dinners and soirees, while 
residing at Lausanne, where might be 
met, at one period or other, all the learn- 
ed and accomplished men of Europe who 
could afford to travel. In this country, 
his public duties had not only brought 
him into official connection, but personal 
intimacy, with Washington, Hamilton, the 
elder Adams, Jefferson, and Madison. He 
was simple in his habits of life, and fru- 
gal in his ordinary expenditures, but high- 
ly liberal for all worthy objects. The 
mildness and gentleness of his manners 
made him beloved by all who had the 
good fortune of his acquaintance. He 



17 



was of the old school of Dutch scholars 
and statesmen, proud and fond of the 
ancient glories, manners, and institutions 
of his country, and an adequate repre- 
sentative of the principles, habits, and 
studies which produced De Witt, Barne- 
veldt, and Grotius. 



EXTRACT FROM A SERMON PREACHED IN THE FIRST CON- 
GREGATIONAL CHURCH, IN CHAMBERS STREET, NEW 
YORK, ON THE SUNDAY FOLLOWING THE DEATH OF 

R. G. VAN POLANEN, FROM PROVERBS XVI. 31 : 

" THE HOARY HEAD IS A CROWN OF GLORY, IF IT 
BE FOUND IN THE WAY OF RIGHTEOUSNESS." 



***** I have been led into 
these remarks, my friends, as may have 
occurred to you, in consequence of the 
death of one of our number well known 
to most of you, and whom I need not 
name. You miss his venerable form from 
its accustomed place. You do not see 
him joining in these services, as it was 
his wont to do. He has left us. . Jn a 
good old age, not suddenly, but by a 



19 



gradual decline, he has gone to his 
rest, and we shall behold his face no 
more. 

It is not my custom, you well know, 
to indulge in celebrating the virtues or 
rehearsing the actions of those who have 
been of us, and have departed out from 
among us. And although it would be so 
gratifying to myself to do it in the pres- 
ent instance, I shall still refrain. It is 
a custom which I do not altogether ap- 
prove, and will not observe. It is so 
open to abuse, even with the best inten- 
tions, that, for one, I dare not trust my- 
self. I will only add, therefore, what, 
from its close connection with the ob- 
jects of religious services, may not be in- 
appropriate, that the faith of our depart- 
ed friend in Christianity and its promises 
proved to him in his last moments, as 
it had done for years, the chief source 
of his happiness. He had laid the foun- 



20 



dations of his belief deep in a truly con- 
scientious and profound research. There 
was scarce any thing he had not read, 
or rather studied, which promised to throw 
light upon truth, or impart new force to 
his convictions. Hence he was an unwa- 
vering and intelligent believer in Chris- 
tianity as a Divine revelation, in Jesus 
as a sufficient guide and Saviour, and in 
the rational character of the religion which 
he taught. His faith, standing secure 
upon inquiry and thought, did not for- 
sake him at the time when he most 
needed it, but revealed itself to him in 
new and unaccustomed power. During 
the last weeks of his life, he derived 
the highest satisfaction from dwelling and 
conversing upon the character of God as 
Jesus Christ has unfolded it, and often 
spoke of the confidence with which, when 
the hour should arrive, he should surren- 
der into the hands of such a being his 



21 



spirit. The future and its glories, which 
" ear hath not heard, nor the eje seen, 
nor the heart conceived," engrossed all his 
thoughts ; and it was almost with feelings 
of disappointment, that, after successive 
violent assaults of his disease, he found 
himself yet in the vale of tears. In all 
his comforts and joys, springing from 
these and other kindred sources, he ac- 
knowledged with warmest expressions of 
gratitude his obligations to God " in the 
Gospel of his Son." It was not upon 
natural arguments alone, but mainly upon 
the promises and the resurrection of Jesus 
Christ, that his hope rested, firm as a 
rock, of a future happy existence. If he 
had a joy at last, it was inspired by the 
religion of Jesus ; if he had a hope, it 
grew out of the Gospel ; if he sued for 
mercy, it was through the promises of 
Christ. 

So deep was his need of religion, that, 



22 



he has said, he believed he should still 
have continued to the end a believer in 
Christianity, though an unhappy one, if 
he had never heard of that form of it, 
which, for the last twenty years * of his 
life, he had embraced and esteemed as 
his chief possession ; but that he could 
not adequately describe the great acces- 
sion that had been made to his happi- 
ness, after he became fully acquainted 
with the religion of the New Testament 
as he last received it. This supplied 
every want, cleared up every doubt, swept 
away every cloud. 

This form of the religion of Jesus, 
which approved itself to his reason when 



* He frequently acknowledged himself under particu- 
lar obligations to the writings of Professor Norton and 
the venerable Noah Worcester. Although he had in 
early life rejected the doctrines of the Trinity and Atone- 
ment as intrinsically incredible, yet "Bible News" was 
the first book which gave clearness and consistency to 
his views. 



23 



in its full strength, and was the guide 
of his life, was equally, was even more 
prized, and was more replete with con- 
solation and joy and strength, and seemed 
to him more true and beautiful than ever, 
when he had done living and came to 
die. He had experienced it to be a 
good religion to live by ; he found it to 
be a good one to die by. It had proved 
itself equal to all the emergencies of life, 
to the formation of character, to action 
and duty in all their varieties, and he 
found it equal to all the soul could ask 
for, or desire, on the bed of sickness, and 
in the immediate prospect of dissolution. 
It ever inspired joy ; and made him will- 
ing, rather to be "absent from the body, 
that he might be present with the Lord." 
I hope I have transgressed no good 
rule in what I have now said. I have 
had no thought of glorifying the dead, 
but simply of benefiting the living, by 



24 



speaking of one who loved religion to the 
end, and whose heart's desire and prayer 
it was, that all should believe it and love 
it, from the least to the greatest. 

It is our duty to cultivate those affec- 
tions which bind us to each other as 
members of the same community, of the 
same neighbourhood, of the same religious 
society. It is for this last reason, more 
especially, that I have taken a brief notice 
of one who has from the first foundation 
of this church been one of our number. 
These walls, which see us sitting together 
week after week, should see us united. 
" By this shall men know that ye are my 
disciples, if ye have love one towards an- 
other." We sympathize with each other, 
on most of the other important occasions 
of life ; it is good that we do so, when, 
successively in our order, God sends forth 
his word and withdraws us from these 
scenes. The more a religious society can 



25 



regard itself as but a larger family, the 
more nearly will it present a desirable mod- 
el of what an association of Christian be- 
lievers ought to be. Let us, then, feel 
an interest in one another, not only in 
health but in sickness, not only in joy 
but in sorrow, not only in life but in 
death, not only for time but for eternity. 

So shall we best fulfil the law of love. 

* * * 



EPITAPH. 



UPON A MARBLE MONUMENT, IN THE BURIAL-GROUND 
AT BRIDGEPORT, CONN., IS THE FOLLOWING INSCRIP- 
TION. 



This marble covers the remains of 
Roger Gerard Van Polanen, born in Rot- 
terdam, Holland, May 3d, 1757 ; an ac- 
complished scholar, a learned civilian, an 
honest man, and a sincere Christian. He 
served his country with fidelity and repu- 
tation in various important trusts, in each 
of the four quarters of the world. At 
Batavia in the island of Java during 
many years, in different parts of Europe, 
and in Africa at the Cape of Good Hope, 
he was high* in the confidence and em- 



27 



ployment of his government; and, from 
the year 1795 to 1802, he filled the ap- 
pointment of Minister Resident of the 
Batavian Republic at the court of the 
United States. 

At the advanced age of seventy-four, 
he was again called by his country to 
preside over her councils in her East In- 
dia possessions ; but the burden of those 
years did not allow him to add to it the 
cares of office. He died in this place, 
on the 9th of September, 1833, after a 
residence in this country of thirty-four 
years. 

If he is entitled to an honorable mem- 
ory for the useful and distinguished course 
of his public life, they who knew him 
with the familiarity of friendship will al- 
ways prefer to remember him for the 
amiable dispositions, the Christian virtues, 
and practical wisdom which won the love 
and respect of all who enjoyed the priv- 



28 



ilege of his society. He lived and died 
in the faith and hope of a disciple of 
Jesus Christ. 

This monument is not erected so much 
to record the honors of the dead, or in 
the vain hope to rescue from oblivion that 
which must inevitably be forgotten, as to 
relieve and gratify the affections of one 
now solitary and disconsolate, the Widow 
Bernadina Adelaide Van Polanen. 




i niniMiiai iiimmiih i m 



